302 



THE YEW. 



site, our Christian forefathers cannot with pro- 

 priety be said to have sanctioned the custom 

 either from superstitious feelings or for the sake 

 of supplying the demand for bow-staves. 



The Yew is a native of most of the temperate 

 parts of Europe and Asia, growing in its wild 

 state in situations little exposed to the direct rays 

 of the sun, such as the north side of steep hills, 

 or among tall trees, and, according to Loudon, 

 always in a clayey, loamy, or calcareous soil, 

 which is naturally moist. The same author also 

 states that the Yew is rather a solitary than a 

 social tree, being generally found either alone or 

 vdth trees of a different species. This is, however, 

 far from being always the case, for the Yew-tree 

 Island in Loch Lomond, some twenty years ago, 

 furnished three hundred Yews for the axe ; and 

 there are still a number of fine specimens on it ; 

 it is also abundant on the north side of the moun- 

 tains in the same neighbourhood. There are also a 

 great number of these trees on the cliffs near Coomb 

 Martin in the north of Devon, growing in places 

 which are accessible only to birds. But the most 

 remarkable assemblage of Yews in Great Britain, 

 is at a place called Kingly Bottom, about four 

 miles from Chichester. As to when, or by whom 

 they were planted, or indeed whether they were 

 planted by the hand of man at all, history is silent. 

 They are about two hundred in number ; one half 

 of them form a dense, dark grove, in the depth of 

 the bottom ; the remainder, smaller ones, are 

 scattered over the sides of the valley, intermingled 

 with fine plants of Juniper and Holly. The trunks 

 of the largest vary from twelve to twenty feet in 

 circumference, at three feet from the ground ; 



